Within modern work environments, users are required to interact with many different persons on a daily basis. Often, the persons with whom one must interact are not geographically co-located. As such, users must rely upon various communication technologies to facilitate interactions. The particular type of communication technology used may be either synchronous or non-synchronous. Examples of synchronous communications include instant messaging, text messaging, online meetings, traditional telephony, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), video chat, and teleconferencing. Examples of non-synchronous communications include electronic mail and discussion boards.
Synchronous communications are technologies that offer real time and potentially concurrent exchange of data or communications between the participants. Non-synchronous communications are not real time and communications are not concurrently bi-directional or conversational in nature. Synchronous communications provide various advantages over non-synchronous communications including, for example, increased efficiency, immediacy, and timeliness to the participant interactions. In order to preserve these benefits, however, a synchronous communication session must be organized between the participants without placing an undue burden upon any one participant.